1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, system and method for person verification.
2. Description of Related Art
In the prior art, in order to ensure security, the IC (Integrated Circuit) card containing a record of the operator information of a person, operator ID (Identification) and password are inputted, and person identification is carried out using such inputted information. In particular, fingerprint verification using the fingerprint of each person as biological information has been carried out for person verification. Further, a technique has been proposed to use the image forming apparatus of a copier having a person verification function.
In the fingerprint verification, the registered fingerprint feature data of N persons (where “N” denotes two or more) is acquired and registered. The fingerprint feature data inputted by an operator at the time of verification is compared with the N pieces of feature data of the registered feature data group. Person verification is performed according to whether they match or not (according to whether there is any matching referential data) (hereinafter referred to as “1:N verification”). For example, if matched feature data is found by the fingerprint verification, the user is granted permission to use the copier. If matched feature data is not found, the user is not granted permission to use the copier. Such an arrangement is disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example.
A technique of person verification based on a combination of an ID and fingerprint has also been proposed. FIG. 13 shows the flow of a conventional person verification process. The following describes the conventional person verification process based on fingerprints to be performed using a copier provided with a fingerprint input section, a key input operation section and a memory section. Multiple pieces of feature data, each of which is associated with the ID of each person, are stored in the memory section of a copier.
As shown in FIG. 13, in the copier, an ID is inputted by the operator through the operation section (Step S91). A fingerprint is inputted by the operator through the fingerprint input section, and the feature data is generated from the fingerprint image data (Step S92). Using the inputted ID as a key, the referential data corresponding to the ID is obtained by searching the multiple pieces of referential data stored in the memory section (Step S93). The inputted feature data and the referential data corresponding to the ID are compared, and a decision step is taken to determine if they are matched or not (1:1 verification) (Step S94).
If they match (YES in Step S94), the permission to use the copier is set (Step S95), and the (conventional) person verification process terminates. After that, the operator having inputted the fingerprint can use the copier. If they do not match (NO in Step S94), the non-permission to use the copier is set (Step S96), and the (conventional) person verification process terminates. After that, the operator having inputted the fingerprint identifies through the ID and password (e.g., Patent Document 2).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Laid-Open Patent Publication NO. 2002-108487
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Laid-Open Patent Publication NO. 2002-99515
In the prior art 1:N verification technique disclosed in the Patent Document 1, inputting of the ID for comparison is not required. Although this may facilitate the operation, a longer verification time is required if there is an increase in the number (N) of the pieces of data for comparison with the inputted feature data. Further, the increase in the number (N) of the pieces of data results in an increase in the number of the pieces of mutually similar data, with the result that precision in person verification is deteriorated in the prior art.
In the conventional 1:1 verification method disclosed in the Patent Document 2, the number of the pieces of referential data for comparison is “1”. Although this means a shorter matching time without precision in person verification being deteriorated, ID inputting is obligatory in all verifications. This has raised the problem of reduced user convenience in person verification.